# PCRE2 vs RegexBuddy

| Attribute | PCRE2 | RegexBuddy |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 44.4 (27% (low)) | 4.5 (15% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 33 | - |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 129 | - |
| adoption.github_stars | 1,341 | - |
| deployment.options | `{"self_hosted":true}` | - |
| description.long | A free regular expression matching library that implements Perl 5 syntax with extensive Unicode and character encoding support. It offers both traditional backtracking and JIT-compiled matching engines, available through native and POSIX-compatible APIs. | RegexBuddy provides an integrated environment for working with regular expressions, offering testing and learning capabilities alongside automatic code snippet generation tailored to specific programming languages, and tools for organizing regex pattern libraries. |
| integrations.count | 2 | 2 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Exim"},{"name":"Nginx"}]` | `[{"name":"AceText"},{"name":"PowerGREP"}]` |
| language.primary | C | - |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` | `{"cli":true,"windows":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.pcre.org/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-19T21:07:09.586Z"}` | `{"type":"perpetual","freeTier":false,"sourceUrl":"https://www.regexbuddy.com/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-20T12:48:13.288Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | no |
| pricing.model | commercial | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | unknown |
| pricing.transparent | - | no |
| release.cadence_days | 50 | - |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.48-RC1","date":"2026-08-25T14:44:44Z","type":"prerelease","version":"pcre2-10.48-RC1"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.47","date":"2025-10-21T09:52:48Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.47"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.46","date":"2025-08-27T16:45:55Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.46"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.45","date":"2025-02-05T09:09:01Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.45"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.45-RC1","date":"2024-12-27T07:53:11Z","type":"prerelease","version":"pcre2-10.45-RC1"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.44","date":"2024-06-07T14:13:37Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.44"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.43","date":"2024-02-16T17:15:57Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.43"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.43-RC1","date":"2023-12-28T16:41:04Z","type":"prerelease","version":"pcre2-10.43-RC1"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.42","date":"2022-12-12T17:24:44Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.42"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.41","date":"2022-12-06T17:10:13Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.41"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.40","date":"2022-04-15T16:05:35Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.40"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.39","date":"2021-10-29T16:16:41Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.39"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.38","date":"2021-10-01T15:53:58Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.38"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.38-RC1","date":"2021-08-31T16:30:14Z","type":"prerelease","version":"pcre2-10.38-RC1"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.37","date":"2021-08-22T10:52:04Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.37"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.36","date":"2022-01-24T14:14:28Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.36"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.35","date":"2022-01-24T14:17:46Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.35"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.34","date":"2022-01-25T16:23:42Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.34"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.33","date":"2022-01-25T16:25:27Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.33"},{"url":"https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/tag/pcre2-10.32","date":"2022-01-25T16:26:41Z","type":"stable","version":"pcre2-10.32"}]` | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=conda&package_name=pcre2&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | - |

## Capabilities (Regex Tools)

| Capability | PCRE2 | RegexBuddy |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Capabilities** |  |  |
| Redos resistant | - | - |
| Lookaround support | - | - |
| Backreferences | - | - |
| Unicode property escapes | - | - |
| Named captures | - | - |
| Multi pattern matching | - | - |
| Interface type | - | - |
| Visualization | - | - |
| Code generation | - | - |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T15:22:07.703Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*